October 2016

10/31/2016

Happy Halloween! This weekend, many students dressed up and went out for various events. As I worked at the front desk, I watched scarecrows, princesses, policemen, and more come in and out of the building. Many students went out to haunted houses or block parties that were happening in the neighborhood. For the last several years, I haven't dressed up for Halloween because the holiday has coincided with debate trips or trips home. For the first time in 2 and a half years, I decided to get dressed up for Halloween.

After a long and futile search, I settled upon a costume. However, upon realizing that there was no way it would ship in time, I started working on it by hand. This proved to be a much more difficult process than I originally thought:

Several days of gluing, sewing, and stressing later, I finally got the costume together. I'll be sure to post pictures later on today when I put the costume on!

The DU campus also felt like true Halloween this morning. A layer of thick fog floated around the streets:

By the afternoon though, the fog had largely dissipated and our campus was back to its usual, sunny, self. For everyone going out tonight, have fun and stay safe! Happy Halloween!

10/30/2016

Every year, hundreds of hot air balloons take to the skies in New Mexico during the annual hot air balloon festival. The festival mainly happens in Albuquerque, NM, a larger city in the south, but every year, we also catch a couple of balloons in Taos up north. My parents live in a neighborhood where there is some space in between each house. In front of ours, there is a large driveway and a large field that nobody has built on yet.

As a result of all the empty land, we see hot air balloons landing in the driveway every year. It's always exciting to go outside and see a balloon slowly coming down and hearing the whoooosh sound that comes with landing a balloon. The ballooners are always very nice and apologize for landing in our front yard.

In 1972,13 balloons launching from a shopping mall parking lot. Today, the Balloon Fiesta has grown to multiple events launching at the custom-designed, 365-acre Balloon Fiesta Park. During the actual festival, there is music, food, and various shows. There are balloons of all sizes, from giant inflated Darth Vader to traditional New Mexican designs. People come from all over the state and all over the nation to watch the balloons launch, and perhaps even pay to ride in one!

From Denver, it's only about a 6 hour drive, so many people do weekend trips. For anyone who has never seen masses of hot air balloons rise at once, head down to ABQ for the annual October show!

10/17/2016

As fall is in full swing, the leaves have turned yellow, the sweaters have come out, and the search for new coffee shops begins. If you are a coffee addict like me, rest assured. There are TONS of cute, quaint, local roasters for you to sink into. Here are a couple of my favorite, and a couple on my bucketlist (In no particular order):

Stella's Coffeehouse -

Stella's is a coffee shop, book-haven, and art studio in one. The cafe is on Pearl Street - about a 5 minute drive from the university. They appeal to music and art lovers with constant local bands and artist's work rotating in and out. The entire place is very community oriented and the decaf is make with an all-natural water process. There's also lots of seating (and an outdoor patio) and free WiFi for all your studying needs. Whenever I get packed during finals, I come here and enjoy the bustle while writing my papers.

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Next on the list is Kaladi Coffee Roasters -

This is my favorite study spot. Seating can be a challenge because they are constantly packed, but the coffee is affordable and delicious. It is within a 5 minute walk from campus, so transportation is never a problem. The staff are very friendly and there is always some classic music playing. They also offer organic, fair-trade coffee beans too, so you can feel good while drinking good coffee.

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This one is not so much, but still one of my favorites: The House of Commons.

This tea house serves a bunch of different types of tea and makes delicious sandwiches and pastries. My friends and I enjoy coming here during the weekends, but it is a bit further from campus. Nonetheless, we carpool or take the light rail over for some good drinks and good company. The place has a very vintage-brunch feel to it. It is also very close to the downtown area, so we always walk around the shops and parks afterwards.

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Here's another tea house that I haven't been to yet, but am ready to try: The Boulder Duchambe Tea House -

As the name suggests, this place is in Boulder, CO. That's about a half an hour drive from Denver, but it might be worth checking out if you are ever in the area. This teahouse is nestled against the Rocky Mountain Foothills alongside Boulder Creek. It is considered a popular tourist attraction because it was built by hand without the use of any power tools. All of the materials were from Dushanbe, Tajikistan as a gift to their sister city, Boulder. The teahouse is now a reminder of cultural diversity, global cooperation, and international friendship.

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The last one on the list is back to coffee: Denver Cat Company -

The Denver Cat Company is a community cafe where cats, art and book-lovers can come together. Not only do they have great coffee and lots of good reads, but they have cats that roam around the cafe. They are a haven for foster cats and all of the animals are available for adoption. I might not fare too well here because I am allergic to cats, but it still might be worth a quick visit. After all, the kitties seem friendly and adorable, and that's never a bad thing for a stressed-out college student!

For now, those are my go-to coffee [and tea] places. I love how different various cafes are. Not only do the tastes change, but the atmosphere, decoration, and feel change as well. I'm sure as time goes on, my coffee adventures will continue!

10/16/2016

In 1907, Colorado was the first state to make Columbus Day an official holiday. But on October 10th, Denver began the first celebration of Indigenous People's Day instead. The Denver City Council members unanimously approved of the change after large protests over Columbus Day started more than two decades ago in the city. The big protests came from activists who considered Columbus Day a celebration of Native American genocide.

Similar protests occurred in Boulder, where activists first protested Columbus Day. The city passed laws to change the name even before Denver did!

Motivated by the changes in Boulder, the people of Denver quickly banded together as well.

Anti-Columbus groups have gone through changes as well, with younger leaders coming out. People reported inspiration in seeing fire in younger people to keep the struggle of their ancestors alive. For many DU students, this move marks a large success for their cultural heritage and their beliefs. On Saturday, many attended a "Four Directions All Nations March," a huge event involving keynote speakers, music, and a rally at the Colorado State Capitol.

With the political activism that has happened at DU and the rest of the country recently, this marks a change in the right direction. It involves people getting together for a good cause, with students who care about the future of our nation!

10/02/2016

When students think of campus safety, they usually think of strict and uptight officers busting students for drugs and alcohol. However, last thursday, 40 students gathered in a classroom to play root-beer pong with DU campus safety officers. A group of Resident Assistants got together to hold a building-wide program with root-beer pong, mario kart with beer goggles (goggles used to stimulate drunkness) and Jenga. Along with the fun and games, we also passed out alcohol safety cards and awareness tips on how to drink safely for students who want to party.

Overall, the night was a huge success:

Students thought it was hilarious that campus safety officers were playing along and we all got to interact a little bit in a fun setting.

There was a pong-showdown happening:

Jenga was also particularly fun, especially with beer goggles because everyone was wobbling around:

Overall, the program was very successful and a lot of students showed up. Through programs like this, we can improve relationships between campus safety and the students of DU and show them that they truly are here to help out and assist.

Throughout the country, #BlackLivesMatter protests have been happening as a result of acts of police brutality. People of color have spoken up and reached out towards others and towards white individuals to join them in defeating racism and bringing awareness to the racial divide in our country. There has been a ton of support for the movement, but also a lot of backlash. Our campus recently felt the backlash through a painted brick wall by the Driscoll bridge.

Last year, the school authorized students to paint the wall as they liked for student groups and events. A group of students last week painted the words, "Do something, white people. #BlackLivesMatter." onto the wall. The next day, someone had painted over it as shown below:

Many students were enraged and angry because of these actions trivializing the movement. While all people should do something about racism and all lives do matter, a level of white privilege exists that is often not extended to minority populations. All lives matter, but some are in particular need of attention because of the injustices that have been acted upon them (here's a great article as to why the saying matters: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/us/all-lives-matter-black-lives-matter.html?_r=0). While the students who painted over the wall might have had good initial intentions, they held blatant disregard for the feelings of colored students who might've been impacted by their actions. Soon afterwards, a couple of student activists quickly changed the message back:

Although instances like this occur on college campuses, DU will ultimately rebound. Our Undergraduate Student Government quickly sent out an empathetic message in support of the #BLM movement. We are home to a group of student activists who truly care about the future and care about the way that we treat each other. Various student alliances have banded together as a support group and many intelligent, compassionate, individuals on campus have spoken out for the movement. In the end, the best way to stay informed is through a lot of learning and through being exposed to many different perspectives. This way, each person can gain the knowledge needed to form an educated opinion and contribute towards the betterment of our campus/society.

The email from USG:

"We are attempting to wrap our heads around the why–the intent behind the actions displayed on that wall we all love that sits on our campus.

As many of you know, the free speech wall that exists outside of Driscoll exists for students, to voice our concerns, to publicize, to play, and to display our passions to the public.

Free speech is an integral part of our institution, especially as a Liberal Arts college in the West, and more importantly to our rights as citizens or as visitors to this great country.

In the heat of the current racial climate in the United States, we as scholar activists have decided to address what happened this week to the Black Lives Matter Movement statements that had been painted on that wall we love.

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We, as leaders, love free speech. We fully support the notion and fully support the wall that is a visual portrayal of our speech. We recognize your rights, our rights as students and citizens to exercise our freedom of speech. We recognize that someone had the right to alter that wall. But our freedom of speech also allows us to point out the cruelty and irony of that action.

As members of a community, there’s a certain level of respect towards all that ought to be maintained in an effort to build community, to build this family.

It is not hard to see that there was an inherent disrespect when one of our own decided to cross out “#BlackLivesMatter” and “White People. Do Something.” on the wall this pastTuesday.

While we understand that this wall is serving its purpose in providing an outlet for speech, we also want to address the underlying hurt and pain that the defacement of this message has caused us and many of our peers.

The point is not that all lives don’t matter. It’s that all lives should matter. It only takes a few minutes of research and reaching out to our peers to find the alarming rates of inequities for people of color in our country and the rest of the world. The Black Lives Matter Movement is not placing one race above another–rather, Black Lives Matter is, in essence, requesting all of us to reflect on our part in allowing the inequalities to exist. It is bringing about the conversations about that lack of equity within our society, something that has existed since the birth of this nation.

We’re asking that you learn to feel a sense of empathy and compassion towards these issues. We’re asking you, as peers, to begin to engage in these conversations in respectful ways and to engage in these movements based on these principles that we believe are instilled within each and every one of us.

Respect.

Compassion.

Empathy.

We all feel–and we are asking you to do just that.

We belong to a larger community–a community of individuals that we truly believe want to embody these values. We don’t have to agree, but we do have to admit these are realities and work together to improve them because we are here and we are learning.

We look forward to enhancing these conversations with action. We desire a student body that chooses to replace apathy with action–and we hope this resonates with many of you. If you have ideas for this work, please share them with us. And please voice your concerns to us. We would truly love to hear from you, and have no doubt, you will be hearing from us again in the future."